Some Days [Geethanjali]

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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June 2nd, 2026

Having the afternoon to do whatever she pleased within the confines of Diagon Alley was not how Fae had imagined her day would be going earlier that morning. The trip to the mainland to meet with contacts within the Ministry and law enforcement alike was not anything to her these days, unfortunately, and they were only going to be increasing now that she was working with the newest Minister of Magic. Interestingly enough, Rowena Root, Minister of Magic, had ties to Hy-Brasil in the form of her great-grandmother being Fae’s predecessor as High Druid. Despite the intrigued chatter she was getting from the Council, Fae wasn’t ready to fully commit to Minister Root. She had grown skeptical of the mainlander’s highest official, now on their sixth Minister in as many years. The fact that she had personally dealt with all six was mind-numbing, and it had seemed like Minister Granger was the only one aside from Minister Shacklebolt that truly understood what the druids needed. Rowena was hopefully going to be the same way. Maybe even better. Only time would tell.

But that was essentially why Fae was in London and currently exploring Diagon Alley. Meetings upon meetings, and for once the Council was fine with her running off to the mainland to attend because there was finally ‘one of their own’ in the big seat. She had never realized before now how well-liked the crazy, old High Druid Root had been, Fae’s own opinion on the woman being fairly lukewarm over their few and extremely brief interactions. If this meant she got a little more freedom from home though, she was going to take it. She felt that it benefited both her own well-being and Hy-Brasil’s if she could strike out on her own occasionally to understand the mainland a little better. Her hope was that they would see this and come to realize that the druids were just like them, the only difference being their affinity for nature and necessary religious functions. And maybe with Minister Root’s help, an end to some of the stricter laws that kept druids in line with the rest of the mainlander population when they really shouldn’t have been to begin with.

Disguised in her best mainlander outfit (which meant she wasn’t allowed to wear one of her dresses she typically zoomed around the Ministry and Hy-Brasil in and included a pair of pants and an oversized wool sweater), the only thing that truly stuck out about her currently was the gnarled oak staff that once belonged to Merlin. Still in her possession and basically a permanent fixture now, it felt strange to simply leave it back in her hotel room or with one of her contacts at the Ministry. It was too important of an artifact to leave out of her sight, even with someone she knew she could trust. That was where her paranoia ended and her naivety began though, as she walked around Diagon Alley at her own pace, gawking at the strange shopfronts and people that walked in and out of them. And for once, none of them paid her any mind. When she was here on official business and not ‘official business’, like today, her High Druid garb tended to stick out a lot. Going through the halls of the Ministry always drew whispers because of how different she looked. Today though? She was almost positive that she looked like a mainlander. One of the Guardians that had accompanied her from Hy-Brasil was even surprised that she knew how to put a pair of pants on. James had helped her with that during her official visit back in February.

Standing at the window of a bookstore named Flourish & Blotts, Fae had her face almost completely pressed against the glass as she tried to look through the window at the display. She had seen the bookstore plenty of times while being rushed through the shopping district. The hope for today was that she would finally be able to witness it in all its glory. Reading the same dozen or so books over and over again was starting to get boring. Leaning back from the window, she peered over towards the door, thinking about whether she wanted to go in now or come back later. The afternoon belonged to her, after all.

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 723 ● Boy by Ira Wolf

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Geethanjali, her parents, and her siblings had finished meeting with her Aunt Rowena, the newest Minister for Magic, earlier in the day. With her parents' having used the trip to London as an excuse to stop by Diagon Alley to run some errands, Geethanjali had happily gone into Flourish and Blotts to see what new books they had available. She had ended up buying a selection of books, including a few to replace some of the ones that had undoubtedly burned in the Fiendfyre at Hogwarts, and was on her way back out of the bookstore with her purchases when she saw none other than Fae, the current High Druid of Hy-Brasil who had succeeded her great-great-grandmother, Ronda Root, in that position.

Fae, unlike her late great-great-grandmother, was young, though Geethanjali hadn't had very much experience with her. Fae had been High Druid only for a few years and had been selected only after Geethanjali had been bitten and turned, so her only opportunity to see the new High Druid in person had been during the school field trip to the island back in February. In spite of the fact that so many Druids were distrustful of her because of her lycanthropy, Geethanjali liked Fae. She seemed like she was a very fair person, and Geethanjali hadn't gotten the feeling that Fae—even with her role as High Druid—was quite as traditional as some of the others on Hy-Brasil in that way.

For a moment, it looked as though Fae had been trying to decide if she wanted to enter the bookstore, though she wasn't looking in the window as Geethanjali exited through the door. Not wanting to come across as impolite—or in any way "Dark", although it probably helped that she was wearing dress robes because of her trip to the Minister's office—towards the High Druid, Geethanjali smiled at Fae and gave her a small curtsy. She could see that Fae wasn't wearing her usual Druid clothing and wondered if perhaps she had had to come through Muggle London. Her choice of outfit was eclectic in a way that her Druid fashions were not, Geethanjali knew, but there were plenty of Druids (and even lots of "mainlanders" such as herself, to be fair) who didn't know how to blend in in non-magical environments.

"Hello, Fae," Geethanjali greeted her in Brasilic. She wasn't fully fluent in the language and certainly hadn't used it as much since she was a young child, but she knew enough to get by.

fae iona cloudbreaker

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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Fae forgot that doors were a thing that mainlanders frequently used, and while they existed on Hy-Brasil, were very often left propped open at all times of the day because there was never any reason to close them. That was if they even existed on a building in the first place. What told her someone was exiting the bookstore that she had been staring into was the soft tinkling of the bell above where the door was, and she watched as it opened and a person stepped out. She felt like she was still too close despite being several feet away in her location at the window, and almost turned away to go back to her staring at the display. Except that the person walking out into the alleyway had greeted her by name and in Brasilic. Now that wasn’t something that happened often during her brief excursions to the mainland. Her interest immediately piqued, it took a moment for her to comprehend what was going on and if her mainlander muggle design had suddenly failed her. She knew she should have changed the structure of her face with her metamorphmagus ability! It was an instant disguise but she frequently refused to use it because she disliked having to change her face back to the way it was supposed to be. What if she left an eyebrow a few centimeters higher than it was meant to be?

The child that was talking to her was none other than Geethanjali Root, a member of the Root family and related to the current Minister and the former High Druid. And she also happened to be a werewolf. Fae hated that the hairs on the nape of her neck and arms started to prickle instinctively, because the poor girl was absolutely innocent of her affliction. While she was barred from ever returning to Hy-Brasil again outside of Hogwarts supervision (which many were not happy with in the slightest but allowed due to the girl’s ties to High Druid Root), Fae had taken her own exceptions when it came to the young ones that had their lives altered by lycanthropy and vampirism. Her own true understanding of it had started when she first got to know Ava Wolfsired, the child ostracized and ignored simply because of her heritage. These children didn’t choose to be attacked or born from werewolves, and while she knew she could never sway Hy-Brasil to change their minds on it, it didn’t mean that she also had to treat them as inhuman creatures. Geethanjali was a normal girl outside of the full moon.

“Good afternoon, Geethanjali,” Fae returned in her native language. “Has school started again?” she asked, taking note of the robes that the girl had on. That obviously didn’t make too much sense considering that Hogwarts had been burned to the ground not even three weeks prior, but she personally hadn’t paid much mind to what the education department of the Ministry was doing in the interim. Maybe they were sending students back briefly to finish out the year? Eventually Hogwarts and the Ministry would let her know when it was time to send the druid children back, though with Minister Root in place now, she was contemplating bringing the current system to a debate. That meant she needed to collect information and thoughts from the school-aged children and see what they ultimately wanted, and if going to Hogwarts for exams ultimately benefited them. For some, a peak at the outside world was absolutely important, as it had been for her. Others, not so much. Farming and taking care of animals was a perfectly fine life path and she did not want to deter those that decided upon it. At the same time, she didn’t want to let all of the children of Hy-Brasil run off to the mainland. That wouldn’t go over so well with the Council.

“I have passed by this story many times, but never had the chance to go in. Do they have a wide selection of books?” Fae continued in English, hoping that the girl would have more input on the matter than anyone else she could have asked right now. Adding to her already large collection of imported books was important, and she had heard of one recently released that discussed dragon research at length. Considering most of Hy-Brasil’s dragon population was still missing at large, she was hoping to get a glimpse at where the specific breeds she had met would have ended up going. Dragons pulling a disappearing act was not exactly the best impression to leave on the rest of the magical world.

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 774 ● Skinned Alive by Creeping Death

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Fae greeted her in Brasilic and asked her if school had started again. "It hasn't." Geethanjali shook her head before switching back into English. "The older students have OWLs and NEWTs later this month," and she assumed that the Druid students who were old enough would be coming to sit their examinations, too. "They haven't told us anything about Hogwarts yet," Geethanjali added, not that she was sure that she wanted to go back to the castle just yet. Even if it would be able to be rebuilt in such a short period of time, it seemed unsafe to her.

Beyond Fae's confusion about Hogwarts, she mentioned that she had passed by that store—Flourish and Blotts, that was—many times but hadn't gone in. She asked if they had a wide selection of books, and Geethanjali nodded. "It's a very wide selection," she confirmed to the High Druid. It was the main bookstore that most people used, really. "Most people buy their schoolbooks here," she acknowledged in reference to Fae's earlier confusion about Hogwarts, "but they have everything." Maybe they didn't have the sorts of books that would have been in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts, she thought to herself, her mind immediately turning to how many of the books in the school library must have burnt along with most of the rest of the castle. "Cookbooks, spell books, magazines, novels… I think they have books on most subjects."

fae iona cloudbreaker

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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So not yet when it came to Hogwarts. That wasn’t exactly a surprise for her. As for the OWLs and NEWTs still occurring, that came as news to her. The meetings she had for this trip were potentially to discuss that, so she added that to her mental list of things to ask about in the off-chance the people within the education department forgot. They weren’t the best at their jobs, really, and it was no wonder that there were so many issues trying to get druid children over to Hogwarts and why it was so important that they do so. There was also the possibility that they were purposefully going to leave her out of the loop and only clue her in on the exact dates right before the exams took place. If they wanted to discuss fairness on a number of levels, this would be one way to really get under her skin about what was fair and what wasn’t concerning the druids and Hy-Brasil. She didn’t want to rely on Minister Root immediately either because the poor woman was coming into the job with more than enough on her desk already. That seemed to be a common thread with each successive Minister these days. Every time this happened, Fae was thankful that her designation was for life. That was maybe the only time she was ever happy about it. “Well, I hope they are able to get everything back in order. Are they offering anything in the interim?” she assumed there had to be some plan in place by now, but maybe not considering the silence concerning Hy-Brasil in all of this.

“That is so many options…” she hummed after Geethanjali detailed everything that the bookstore had inside. From the outside it didn’t look like it was a large space, though that meant nothing once magic was involved. A simple interior engorgement charm later and anything could fit inside. Maybe even her herd of griffins. “Do you think they have books on Merlin?” Fae inquired. At this stage in her research on the man, she was positive that she had read everything that the mainlanders had to offer. If there was a book inside this shop that talked about Merlin, she could probably recite the passage line-by-line by now. He was definitely a revered warlock but certainly secretive and more mythological than anything to these people. The only evidence of his actual existence happened to be from a few rather ancient and grizzled witches and wizards that had been alive during his time and found it a good idea to make note of the things he had done. Outside of that, there was only his staff and his presence on Hy-Brasil. Fae already knew that of course.

Most of the books the girl brought up probably wouldn’t be of much use to Fae though. Cooking was fairly simplistic back home and she didn’t have novelties like electric ovens or the spinny-hummy things that heated up food. The word was escaping her at the moment unfortunately. “I would guess there are probably ones about the stars too?” she added, remembering then that she wanted to see if the dragon book was there too. “Oh! And someone told me about a book filled with information on dragons. We lost some of them, you know. That might help me with finding the last few.” Or rather, she would be directing someone that could come and go from the island more freely than she could to find them. She still couldn’t believe how elusive giant, flying lizards could be. Quite the magic trick they had there.

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 605 ● New Agony by Creeping Death

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Fae asked if Hogwarts was offering them anything in the interim, and Geethanjali shook her head. As far as she knew, they didn't really have options, and she didn't think that most people had even a fraction of their school supplies from that year. All of that would have burnt in the castle, she was sure, because the timing hadn't been such that people could really go back to their dormitories and grab their trunks and drag them out of the building. Lucky, Flourish and Blotts was there to fill the gap of the books that they all needed to replace, though Geethanjali was fairly certain that she would need to make more than a few trips into London to ensure that she had everything she would need to be ready to return to Hogwarts in September.

Fae sounded absolutely thrilled by the prospect of having access to so many books, and Geethanjali only wished that she could have shown her the Hogwarts library. She asked her if they thought that the shop had books on Merlin, and Geethanjali nodded. Before she could elaborate, saying that she could take Fae inside Flourish and Blotts to see what they had in stock, she asked if there were books about stars there, too.

"Oh!" Fae exclaimed. "And someone told me about a book filled with information on dragons. We lost some of them, you know. That might help me with finding the last few."

Geethanjali nodded eagerly. "We're required to take Astronomy at Hogwarts, at least through fifth year," she said of Fae's request for books on stars. "And there must be some books about dragonology," she continued. Even though the profession was regulated and any old person couldn't just buy a dragon egg without finding themselves in some serious trouble, Flourish and Blotts must have had something. If they didn't have anything that was close enough to what Fae was wanting, there were dragon reserves that probably had some books like that. "I can show you where the books are," Geethanjali volunteered. It wasn't hard to find them, but she enjoyed the idea of being useful to the High Druid.

fae iona cloudbreaker

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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She should have assumed that there wasn’t going to be anything in terms of education right now; it had only been a few weeks and the logistics of it all had even started to creep over onto the desks of her people within the Ministry though not to hers yet. Not that she had a physical desk anywhere on the mainland. Fae was absolutely fine with not having to send the druid children over for exams this year if it came down to it. They owed the mainlanders nothing as far as she was concerned, and those exams amounted to very little back on Hy-Brasil. If anything, she didn’t have a problem letting those that had plans to work on the mainland and required the exams to do so. Obviously she didn’t want to purposely stifle a child’s learning because of the follies of mainlanders and their inability to quell dark wizard uprisings, but she also had to protect her people. If the Ministry couldn’t understand that, then she didn’t foresee that great of a relationship moving forward (which she even hesitated to call it that to begin with). All of this depended on what Minister Root’s plan was. Seeing as it was only the new Minister’s first official day in office though, Fae doubted the educational system of Hy-Brasil was being thought of currently. Expecting anything else right now would almost be like overstepping her boundaries. With past Ministers, that wouldn’t have played out the way she wanted it to. The Council would probably have it otherwise, but she was still the voice of the people of Hy-Brasil.

Each one of her questions about what the bookstore might have in stock was responded to with a nod of Geethanjali’s head. What a wonderful store this had to be! She had been eyeing it for so long too, so it felt great to know that she had been assuming correctly about it all this time. “I am glad they teach both that and the magical creature class. You know how important that one is.” It had almost felt like cheating for certain subjects when she had gone to Hogwarts for her exams. Some areas were obviously lacking, like their defensive magic class, which focused mostly on the Dark Arts. She and her people weren’t going to participate in anything that was a practical that went in the same direction as dark magic could.

Geethanjali offered to show her around the store, and Fae gave a quick glance up and down the street. Wherever her Guardian was, they weren’t with eyeshot currently. Obviously she wasn’t some meek niffler and knew how to use magic, and anyone that tried to get in her way was inviting a lot of trouble with both the High Druid of Hy-Brasil and a relative of the new Minister. Merlin’s staff had a tad bit more magic to it than the average witch or wizard had in them altogether too, so she wasn’t too concerned in the long run. “If I am not taking up your time, that would be a great help.”

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 516 ● Be OK by Band-Maid

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Geethanjali noticed that Fae was looking around quite a bit after her offer to show her the inside of Flourish and Blotts. It was just a bookshop, and they weren't in Knockturn Alley. This was only Diagon Alley, after all, where just about everyone did their shopping—for Hogwarts or otherwise. Another thought washed over Geethanjali then, and she had to wonder if Fae was embarrassed to be seen with her. She hoped not, but she couldn't rule it out. That was what being a werewolf did, Geethanjali guessed; it made people cautious, like they might catch her lycanthropy if they were to spend too much time around her. That wasn't true of everyone, of course, but the discrimination typically outweighed the positive experiences.

Fae, however, said that it would be a great help if she wasn't going to be taking up her time, and Geethanjali shook her head no. Her family knew that she was going to be in Flourish and Blotts, so she wasn't wandering off. Besides, as soon as they realized that she was there helping the High Druid with her shopping, well… That didn't happen often, and books were such an easy thing to help with. Even if it were a Muggle shop, she thought, books were books. They might not have had all the books that Fae wanted in that case—even looking for books on dragons at Flourish and Blotts might be tough, she thought—but it wouldn't be hard to find out.

"Don't worry. I'll help you," Geethanjali confirmed with a small smile, turning around and opening the door to Flourish and Blotts for Fae. The employees there would probably find her weird for walking back in with the High Druid so soon after she had made her own purchases, but there were worse things that they could have stared at her for.

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[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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“Thank you. I truly mean it,” Fae expressed her gratitude to Geethanjali as the girl stated she would assist her inside the store. There was probably someone on Hy-Brasil whose job it was to help her in situations like this – she was positive that she had heard Ministry employees call it an intern – though that made the position sound horrid. Why would a young person with prospects and goals what to be interred, let alone have to run around at the will of their superiors? She failed to understand that part of it. If it was a mentorship or something similar, where teaching and further education was required to officially start a career, it was different. But calling it an internship seemed very brutal and harsh. It was a gross word. In this case, Geethanjali was helping her out where an assistant probably should have been, but Fae was happy nonetheless.

Finally! She had been eyeballing the bookstore for so long now and it was now within her capabilities to enter it. This would probably end up as her highlight for her trip, mainly because anything that came out of her Ministry meetings over the next several days was bound to be dull and uneventful. The proceedings required for new Ministers of Magic weren’t exactly new to her anymore, as Minister Root was now her sixth time attending. At least this time she didn’t need to pretend to be happy about it. There were aspects of this appointment that could end up benefitting her and Hy-Brasil in the long run if she played her cards right. A little voice in the back of her head did tell her that becoming more acquainted with the Root family would certainly help her case, in which Geethanjali had essentially fallen into her lap. Obviously there was nothing she could do regarding the girl’s status as a werewolf, but that sort of thing only truly worried her under the full moon.

Entering the bookstore as Geethanjali held the door open for her, Fae was met with one of the most wondrous sights she had ever seen: rows of bookshelves ceiling high and across multiple levels of the store. Stacks of books with smiling, waving witches on them, each with very similar titles and that looked to be cookbooks though she couldn’t quite tell because the picture on the cover was doing its best to beckon her over to them. Her eyes were immediately distracted by everything else in the store though, and trying to focus on one specific book or aisle was almost impossible. The only other time that she could even remember seeing this many books in one place was when she had first been shown the Hogwarts library when she was fifteen and there for her OWL examinations. But a ginormous library within a castle was to be expected, so while it was absolutely impressive to her, she couldn’t take anything home with her and only had a limited time at the school to try and absorb the knowledge she wanted at that time. Since then, she had purchased several of the books that she remembered the titles of, though there still weren’t enough to satiate the hunger that she had for mainlander novels and encyclopedias.

While trying not to drift too far away from the front entrance as she waited for Geethanjali to direct her towards the requested books of interest, Fae’s dumbfounded gaze was apparently noticed by the employee behind the counter, who was eagerly grinning back. The High Druid assumed that this person probably thrived off of helping others find the books they wanted to purchase or peruse, and was most likely an expert in many fields of study. To be the curator of all of this, one had to be well-read and intelligent. That was the only way it made sense in her head. Otherwise the store would be a mess and a form of constant chaos. The stacks of books that she had noticed upon entry, the smiling cookbooks, were definitely a bit in the way though that had to have been done on purpose to lure customers to buy them. Therefore, the woman at the counter had to be a genius with the way she had put her store together.

“Geethanjali,” Fae whispered to her guide, who she hadn’t actually seen yet since stepping into the store because of her distractedness. “I think we should start with the book on dragons. I am afraid if I do not get that immediately, I may forget about it…” she admitted, though immediately started wandering off in a direction that her brain had deemed ‘important’ for no other reason than the fact that she had seen a couple of books floating around a corner. Everything about this store was fascinating to her, and far more than her sometimes abrupt introduction to muggle technology. Because these books, and other magical based stores like this one, were more to her speed. She simply didn’t have access to any of them for the majority of the year. Like with her newfound interest in butterbeer imports, having a bookstore on Hy-Brasil wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. And it didn’t have to be a transactional sort either. Utilizing it like a library would function better for the druids anyways, similar to how there was almost open access to island records and religious texts currently. No one ever truly requested those sorts of things though because they were honestly boring. But Flourish and Blotts? This was the pinnacle of knowledge as far as she was concerned, and now she didn’t fear to enter and pick out a book every now and again. “And then the one on the stars. I think the book I already have is one of the ones that Hogwarts requires, as it has a name and notes scribbled all throughout it.” They were poor notes though, as most were off the mark greatly based on what she had learned of astrology and the best way to read the stars. But that was why it was a school book for beginners!

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 1,022 ● All That Matters by Blanco White

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Receiving Fae's sincere thanks just for going back inside with her to shop for books made Geethanjali feel good about herself. Buying books wasn't some heroic task at all, but it was a big deal for a teenage werewolf with Druid ties who had felt largely cut off from that part of what she saw as her identity. (She had no Druid blood herself, but non-Druids were generally welcomed into their communities, at least if they weren't people who engaged in so-called "Dark" magic.)

Fae walked inside Flourish and Blotts, and Geethanjali didn't have to see the look upon the High Druid's face to know that she must have reacted like a third-year who had just discovered Honeydukes for the first time. Even the one girl who worked in the bookshop and always seemed too bored with her job was grinning from ear to ear at the sight of her, though that could have been from how striking Fae's appearance was in general.

Geethanjali stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She was just in time to hear Fae speaking to her, though she didn't look at her. "Geethanjali," whispered the High Druid nevertheless, "I think we should start with the book on dragons. I am afraid if I do not get that immediately, I may forget about it…"

Prepared to lead her in that direction, Geethanjali scanned the shop for the right section of books. When she turned back in the direction in which Fae should have been, she was gone. She hadn't gone far, though; she'd simply seen something else that caught her eye. Geethanjali could relate to that; she was constantly being reminded by other people not to get distracted, but Fae had given her a task. Dragons she wanted, so dragons she would get. (Well, she would get books on them, anyway… Acquiring an actual dragon was difficult and either very illegal or very time-consuming, since the Ministry had regulations about those things.)

She caught up with where Fae had gone, not that she had ever left the shop, and Fae mentioned that she also wanted a book on the stars. "I think the book I already have is one of the ones that Hogwarts requires," she explained, "as it has a name and notes scribbled all throughout it."

"Dragons and stars," stated Geethanjali aloud. She was saying it for her own benefit as much as she was for Fae's. Those books would be in different sections, of course, but Flourish and Blotts really wasn't that big. The dragon books would be in with the books on Magizoology, Geethanjali assumed, or maybe there were enough of them that the shop had a separate section just for Dragonology itself. She wasn't sure without checking, but she had the benefit of having been in there herself not long before Fae had shown up.

Come to think of it, she was sure, in fact, that she had seen a book on dragons while she had been doing her own shopping. With a glance over towards where some of the textbooks were shelved, Geethanjali again looked to Fae. "The dragon books should be this way," she told her, indicating where they needed to go in order to find those. There was a sign that mentioned Dragonology by name, too, and that made it even simpler.

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[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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Getting lost amongst the rows of books would have been so easy for her to do if she hadn’t had Geethanjali as her guide. Traversing the Wildwood with her eyes closed was easier than this, and that meant walking by all of the things that normally distracted her back home. There were a lot of firsts for her on the mainland but this easily trumped everything else so far (except the full-body experience of drinking butterbeer for the first time). Books and butterbeer would be her downfall most likely, addictive mainlander substances that she could see herself easily falling victim to if she wasn’t careful. Thankfully a vast ocean and portkey travel separated her from these newfound pleasures of hers. No one would fault her for bringing books back to Hy-Brasil though. And she was sure that she could convince others of the necessity for butterbeer on the island. If they could produce wine in vast amounts, they could do the same with the sugary drink.

“Yes, dragons and stars,” Fae said dreamily, though she was distracted by the shelf immediately in front of her that had what looked to be a person on a broom, zooming across the cover. All of her books looked like normal ones! This was something else altogether! As she started to take a step towards the mysterious moving book cover, she heard Geethanjali state that the books on dragons would be a different way. Reeling her hand back towards her, she could feel the itch in her fingers that told her she really wanted to look at the book. She would have been doomed in life if she was a mainlander, always having access to bookstores like this. Her tiny home was already overflowing with books as it was. An infinite amount available to her at all times would lead her to being broke and destitute. “Is it possible to come here and not want to buy everything?” she asked the younger girl as she slowly followed her. Every front-facing book received a long, curious stare as she dragged her feet as they headed towards the books on dragons.

geethanjali amaryllis root ● 355 ● Karl (I Wonder What It's Like To Die) by Pale Waves

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[geethanjali amaryllis root]

June 2, 2026

Hearing and seeing Fae, the High Druid, acting just as excited about a bookstore as any Ravenclaw was entertaining and a little shocking. It made her seem less like a "real" adult or even the goddess that she saw her as and more like a cool older sister. Normally, it was like she wasn't really worthy of being in her presence, so anything other than that made Geethanjali absolutely thrilled.

"Is it possible to come here and not want to buy everything?"

Geethanjali laughed lightly and shook her head. "It isn't possible," she said in agreement, though she certainly didn't feel the need to buy everything. She had some of the books already, especially the textbooks that had been assigned to her in previous years.

As promised, she walked Fae over to where the books on dragons were shelved. "And here are the dragon books," she announced. There were plenty of them, too. There was Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit, for one—not that many people were going to make much use of that book in reality—plus Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland and more. The books weren't unlimited, but there was a decent selection available. Geethanjali didn't think that the books were as popular because of how few people actually dealt with real, live dragons.

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There were certain impossibilities that Fae was perfectly fine with. Not being able to step into a bookstore without walking out with a dozen books in her hands was one of them. Hy-Brasil lacking a proper bookstore was one of the biggest letdowns ever, and being able to freely cross to the mainland whenever she pleased now meant she could scratch that itch. Learning was the best way to understand her counterparts on the mainland and figure out what the druids had locked themselves away from for centuries. Now, there was still a lot that she wasn't willing to integrate into their lifestyle, like technology and the Dark Arts. Drawing hard lines where certain practices started to effect the island and their faith was her limit. That didn't mean she disliked looking at the television in the rooms she was frequently put up in during her trips, or that people had little boxes in their pockets that could send letters faster than owls and instantly take moving pictures. At the end of the day, she enjoyed the peace and quiet of Hy-Brasil and wanted to maintain that as much as she could whilst also dipping her toes into what the mainland had to offer.

But dragons and stars and their accompanying books came first. Geethanjali led her straight to the section on the flying lizards, and her eyes practically popped out of her head! There were so many! "I doubt this one will help much," Fae chuckled as she briefly flipped open the book titled Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. She didn't know what breeding dragons could do to generate a profit, unless the author meant increasing their numbers? Regardless, there were quite a few other books that looked like they were chock-full of the sort of information she needed. Grabbing the one that focused on dragons in Great Britain and Ireland, her eyes then wandered over to another one titled The Dragon Journal by a Charles Weasley. Wasn't that last name also one of the ones that Minister Granger had? Interested, Fae snagged it off the shelf as well and began to read the summary on the back.

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June 2, 2026

Fae laughed and said that she doubted that a book on dragon breeding would be helpful to her, and Geethanjali had to giggle at that, too. Then again, who knew? The same laws didn't apply to the Druids on Hy-Brasil; they could probably make a small fortune by breeding dragons for people elsewhere, provided that the Ministry didn't frown upon it. Besides, with her Aunt Rowena now running the show, it was somewhere in the realm of possibility, at least in theory. She'd been eager to hear her suggestions when they had met earlier in the day.

Geethanjali noticed that Fae's attention had flitted to a different book, The Dragon Journal by Charles Weasley. Fae was already reading the back of it by the time that Geethanjali noticed its spine, but she happily spoke up. "That book is by the Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts!" she shared excitedly. "He's a dragonologist," though that was probably fairly obvious, "but he's really great."

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“Oh? That must make him a very informative person then,” Fae commented as Geethanjali filled her in on who the author was. “All of the professors I met when taking the exams at Hogwarts had been extremely welcoming to us. I find educators usually have the best qualities to them…” She trailed off as she quickly breezed over the synopsis on the back cover and then cracked the book open. The table of contents had a list of various topics, such as: the life cycle, habitats, various breeds of dragons that had been studied by the author, and finally, personal anecdotes and observations. It certainly looked to be very informative, and she found that a lot better than the one that focused on breeding and profits. While she didn’t know what the former actually touched on, the title alone had a bit of an ick factor to it.

Fae tucked the book under her arm and beamed at her compatriot. “And now for stars! I am sure there are a lot more concerning astronomy and the night sky than there are for dragons.” She knew quite a bit about the stars already, but what harm could another book on them be? Mainlanders had a funny way of looking at the things above, the muggles apparently even trying to venture out to them. Being grounded suited her just fine, unless it was on the back of one of her griffins. “You know, I have asked plenty of employees at the Ministry about having a day where I could observe the classes at Hogwarts. If the school opens again, of course. Would there be anything of note I should look into? Something that would be beneficial to Hy-Brasil and druids?” The only reason she was asking Geethanjali about this was because she understood what both worlds were like, even if the druid one wouldn’t allow her anymore. “I think I will ask the Headmistress next time. Go above the heads of the Ministry.”

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